July 2020 Reading Thread

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dannymcg said:
Having finished the mil-SF Ruins of the galaxy by J Chaney (it'll be a while before I read any more by him - it set off brill but seemed to fizzle out) I've now gone for a crime thriller.
The Bone Jar by SW Kane
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I notice that Chaney co-writes with about half a dozen other authors and that he has a fairly prodigious output making me suspect one of these, what I call, book factories, that churn out books at a terrific pace. I have found these usually have a pretty good formula for plenty of easy and often exciting reading but generally seem to lack depth. Maybe that's just me though! ;)
 
Semiosis by Sue Burke - I believe this is her debut book (though she has written a lot of short stories and is/was a journalist) and it promises the possibility of some great reading to come in the future. The science is excellent and will appeal to fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky (who endorses the book) with lots of speculative alien biology (but no spiders!!!!!). The actual writing is good and flows well but pretty much all of the POVs grate. More here.

I'm a little surprised to see no mention of it on these pages.
 
After a June of almost no reading for various reasons, I'm about to finish Perchance to Dream, a story collection by Charles Beaumont. The introduction by Ray Bradbury mentions himself and John Collier, among others, as influences and I can see that. I'm finding the book a bit uneven, but entertaining with a few stories that promised even better if he hadn't died in his late 30s.

I've also just started Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Only a few pages in.

Randy M.
 
dannymcg said:
) I've now gone for a crime thriller.
The Bone Jar by SW Kane
Click to expand...
I'm dithering now, I've started this and am well getting into it, gripping yarn blah blah etc.
But my missus has just given it "Oh, I meant to tell you, this arrived today"
It's from Amazon, Glorious by Benford and Niven, the final part of their Bowl of Heaven trilogy.
I think I'm gonna have to put the crime thriller away and open the nice new book.
Science fiction always takes priority for me.
 
I've been reading non-fiction recently. Currently it's The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages by Edward Grant, a (recently deceased) historian who argued there were important, necessary intellectual developments during the medieval era that preceded the Scientific Revolution. Trapped as I am in the modern, technological world, I am particularly fascinated by other conceptions we humans have had.
 
Dave said:
I have question for fans of this series. Nightingale has been very tight-lipped about the disastrous WWII raid on Etteldorf in which most Wizards were killed, and Peter never asks him about it. This book reveals that Nightingale only just survived himself, helped by Kelly, Goddess of the River Kyll. I wish to know more. There are now some graphic novels in this series that I haven't read. One of them seems to be about the WWII raid. Does it tell the whole story? Or, should I wait until Nightingale addresses it within the book series.
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I haven't read the graphic novels either but I did go to see Aaronvitch at a book signing in February and he said then that he's reluctant to show too much about what happened at Ettersburg so it will mostly remain a mystery for now. He said he did have an idea for a prequel novella involving Nightingale but it would take place after the war.
 
williamjm said:
I haven't read the graphic novels either but I did go to see Aaronvitch at a book signing in February and he said then that he's reluctant to show too much about what happened at Ettersburg so it will mostly remain a mystery for now. He said he did have an idea for a prequel novella involving Nightingale but it would take place after the war.
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Sorry, it was Ettersburg not Ettledorf. I was thinking of the Mosel since Kelly held onto the injured Nightingale under a bridge there for several days while he was hunted, but Ettersburg is nowhere near the Mosel or the Kyll. It's a very long way away.

I wonder why he doesn't want to write about what happened at Ettersburg. I think a Nightingale prequel is a good idea, but surely the Ettesburg raid is the biggest event that happened. I also think the series set in the present is running out of steam, although Face Value was better.

I think and Issac Newton prequel would be good too, though Neal Stephenson has kind of cornered that market already.
 
Dave said:
I wonder why he doesn't want to write about what happened at Ettersburg. I think a Nightingale prequel is a good idea, but surely the Ettesburg raid is the biggest event that happened. I also think the series set in the present is running out of steam, although Face Value was better.

I think and Issac Newton prequel would be good too, though Neal Stephenson has kind of cornered that market already.
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I can't remember now exactly why he said he didn't want to write about Ettersburg for now, it feels like February is a very long time ago.

He said he had a lot of ideas for different spin-off stories some of which are probably more likely to happen than others. I think there is an Agent Reynolds story planned, and he mentioned a story idea about an old schoolmate of Nightingale's who he described as a bit of a Bertie Wooster figure who is surprised to find Nightingale showing up on his doorstep asking for help.

He also said he'd had considered a novel following Tobias Winter, although writing a book set in Germany would take a lot of research.

I was just looking online to see if there was any more information and it seems there is an anthology coming out in a few weeks:
www.goodreads.com

Tales from the Folly

Return to the world of Rivers of London in this first short story collection from #1 Sunday Times bestselling author, Ben Aaronovitch. Ta...
www.goodreads.com

Aside from the table of contents there's not much detail about the new stories so I don't know if it includes any of the ones I mentioned above.
 
Dave said:
BTW I'm now reading My Ancestor was a Coalminer.
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@Dave
They were real men in those days, it seems you had to be one to get a girlfriend.....
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I'm reading How to be a Bad Birdwatcher, by Simon Barnes. A fascinating read about how everyone is a birdwatcher. Quite a simple idea, done in a witty and insightful manner. And you don't have to have expensive equipment nor travel very far.
 
While waiting for my car to get some extensive repair work done, I made it through two light reading nonfiction books.

Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! . . . And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them (2019) by Dan Lewis. The title is a bit of a cheat, as the "Soviet invasion" of a small town in Wisconsin was a simulation, to demonstrate the evils of Communism. An OK volume of trivia.

Captured! Inside the World of Celebrity Trials (2006) by Mona Shafer Edwards (art) and Jody Handley (text). This collects courtroom drawings with descriptions of the cases, which either involve movie and TV stars, or particularly notorious crimes. Interesting.

I am now working on Ingenious Patents: Bubble Wrap, Barbed Wire, Bionic Eyes, and Other Pioneering Inventions (revised edition, 2018) by Ben Ikenson and Jan Bennett, a big volume dealing with all kinds of devices.
 
Rereading S. King's 11/22/63, and reading Ward & Burns's The Civil War: An Illustrated History, Tolkien's The Treason of Isengard, Jenkins's Hidden Gospels, etc.
 
Rupert Everett "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins"
Surprisingly well written autobiographical warts and all account (though I suspect there are many many warts barely scratched) of his journey from wealthy privileged youth to cinema stardom via a thousand louche detours. He does have a wonderful turn of phrase, but even so my heart sank around page 150 when I realised there were another 250 to go. Not my usual reading fare.
Here's an example of how the world was at Rupert's feet, age 17, involving the film director John Schlesinger, then a household name:
I had known John since I was seventeen, when he came into a shop where I was working, because "everyone was talking about you, my dear". He tried on a pair of shoes and I was rather cheeky. ('"Our feet are too tiny, aren't they?" I'd said. "We don't carry shoes for such delicate pixie paws.") From then on we were friends, and John was always someone I looked up to.
 
Added Tony H.urwitz's entertaining book about American Civil War re-enactors (they prefer the term "Living historians," etc), Confederates in the Attic
 
Just started First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, WWII Spitfire pilot, after hearing a bit about him during a middle-of-the-night World Service prog.
 
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